To better understand the effects of social media use on adolescents' psychosocial functioning, this study examined the temporal stability of social media effects across two separate 3-week experience sampling methodology (ESM) studies conducted 6 months apart in 2019 and 2020. Participants were 297 adolescents (M = 14.1 years, SD = 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDigital technology enables parents and adolescents to communicate anywhere and anytime. Knowledge of parent-adolescent online communication, however, is mainly based on cross-sectional studies. In this preregistered 100-day diary study, 479 adolescents (M = 15.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDipeptidyl peptidase 8 (DPP8) and 9 (DPP9) are proteases gaining significant attention for their role in health and disease. Distinctive studies of these proteases are hampered by their close homology. Furthermore, designing selective compounds is a major challenge due to the highly conserved catalytic site.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present our efforts in computational drug design against dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4), DPP8 and DPP9. We applied cosolvent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to these three protein targets of interest. Our primary motivation is the growing interest in DPP8 and DPP9 as emerging drug targets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch on liver-related conditions requires a robust and efficient method to purify viable hepatocytes, lymphocytes and all other liver resident cells, such as Kupffer or liver sinusoidal endothelial cells. Here we describe a novel purification method using liver enzymatic digestion, followed by a downstream optimized purification. Using this enzymatic digestion protocol, the resident liver cells as well as viable hepatocytes could be captured, compared to the classical mechanical liver disruption method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMyhre syndrome (MS, MIM 139210) is a rare multisystemic disorder caused by recurrent pathogenic missense variants in SMAD4. The clinical features have been mainly documented in childhood and comprise variable neurocognitive development, recognizable craniofacial features, a short stature with a pseudo-muscular build, hearing loss, thickened skin, joint limitations, diverse cardiovascular and airway manifestations, and increased fibrosis often following trauma or surgery. In contrast, adults with MS are underreported obscuring potential clinical variability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdolescents spend a substantial portion of their time using social media. Yet, there is a lack of understanding regarding how often parents and adolescents communicate about this social media use. To address this gap, we developed the Parent-Adolescent Communication about Adolescents' Social Media Use Scale (PACAS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Allergy Clin Immunol Pract
July 2024
Background: Anaphylaxis is a common feature of patients with mastocytosis, particularly with Hymenoptera venoms. Hence, it is hypothesized that patients with mastocytosis may have an increased susceptibility to developing drug-induced anaphylaxis (DIA). Patients and medical practitioners are therefore concerned when there is a need to use various drugs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCosolvent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are molecular dynamics simulations used to identify preferable locations of small organic fragments on a protein target. Most cosolvent molecular dynamics workflows make use of only water-soluble fragments, as hydrophobic fragments would cause lipophilic aggregation. To date the two approaches that allow usage of hydrophobic cosolvent molecules are to use a low (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener
May 2024
Curr Allergy Asthma Rep
February 2024
Purpose Of Review: Provide an overview of the expanding landscape of mast cell (MC)-targeting treatments in mast cell activation syndromes (MCAS).
Recent Findings: Tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs) targeting wild-type and mutated KIT can efficiently induce MC depletion. Avapritinib and midostaurin can also temper IgE-mediated degranulation.
Background: Suppression of HBV DNA, inhibition of HBV surface (HBsAg) production and therapeutic vaccination to reverse HBV-specific T-cell exhaustion in chronic HBV patients are likely required to achieve a functional cure. In the AAV-HBV mouse model, therapeutic vaccination can be effective in clearing HBV when HBsAg levels are low. Using a single-cell approach, we investigated the liver immune environment with different levels of HBsAg and sustained HBsAg loss through treatment with a GalNAc-HBV-siRNA followed by therapeutic vaccination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiagnostics (Basel)
December 2023
Tryptase has proven to be a very useful and specific marker to demonstrate mast cell activation and degranulation when an acute (i.e., within 4 h after the event) and baseline value (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe circumsporozoite protein (CSP) is the main surface antigen of the Plasmodium sporozoite (SPZ) and forms the basis of the currently only licensed anti-malarial vaccine (RTS,S/AS01). CSP uniformly coats the SPZ and plays a pivotal role in its immunobiology, in both the insect and the vertebrate hosts. Although CSP's N-terminal domain (CSP ) has been reported to play an important role in multiple CSP functions, a thorough biophysical and structural characterization of CSP is currently lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDipeptidyl peptidase 9 (DPP9) is a proline-selective serine protease that plays a key role in NLRP1- and CARD8-mediated inflammatory cell death (pyroptosis). No selective inhibitors have hitherto been reported for the enzyme: all published molecules have grossly comparable affinities for DPP8 and 9 because of the highly similar architecture of these enzymes' active sites. Selective DPP9 inhibitors would be highly instrumental to address unanswered research questions on the enzyme's role in pyroptosis, and they could also be investigated as therapeutics for acute myeloid leukemias.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImmediate hypersensitivity reactions (IHRs) to antineoplastic agents occur frequently, and every oncologist will encounter these reactions in their clinical practice at some point. The clinical signature of IHRs can range from mild to life-threatening, and their occurrence can substantially impede the treatment course of patients with cancer. Yet, clear guidelines regarding the diagnosis and management are scarce, especially from an oncologic point of view.
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